“Yesterday, the multitudes came to show their rage over the dying of the light”
As the big day unfolds, we write this article hours before the start of the Luneta rally. I accepted an invitation to take part in the coverage of yesterday’s rallies at the Bilyonaryo News Channel, so I had to file this column earlier than our deadline.
Government has tried to assuage the anger of the people by a series of actions: the creation of an ICI focused on the deadly and ghastly flood control projects which are today’s latest symbol of corruption; the resignation of the Speaker of the HoR which the president reluctantly decided just the weekend before, including casting his one vote on the replacement; even the belated return of the 60 billion purloined from PhilHealth by the greedy legislators to fund their unprogrammed allocations.
That return of what was looted from PhilHealth was suggested as early as the week after former President Duterte was shanghaied from the airport and flown to Den Haag. It was intended to help quiet the resentment of the masses for what was seen as an unlawful and unjust “kidnap.”
The resignation of the Speaker was a painful decision. Some of the president’s close allies suggested this as early as after the administration’s debacle in the mid-term elections, but the president could not get himself to act.
First there was the question of who could/should replace his first cousin; second and foremost, given the close blood ties, letting go was personally difficult for our conflict-averse president.
The creation of an independent commission was impelled by first, the public doubt on whether legislative inquiries could truly uncover the truth, or would be minded to, especially with the conduct of the HoR’s “tricom/infracom,” chaired as it is by a non-Bicolano today of the most powerful Bicolano ever, the “genius” behind the mangling of the most corrupt budget in our history.
Second, it drew from previous templates: the Agrava Commission, the Davide Commission, the Feliciano Commission, all attempts which concluded nothing substantial.
It is good to note that the president chose three whose professional reputations were welcomed and, more so, naming an advocate against corruption its chief investigator. The public awaits the results, but the anger has not been stilled.
The big day commemorates one of the dreadful chapters of our political history, the 53rd anniversary of the proclamation of martial law, which while instilling fear and immediate discipline, metamorphosed through the years as nothing else but one-man rule and more corruption.
We thought the exile of the dictator to Hawaii and the installation of Ninoy’s widow to popular leadership would bring about genuine change, a departure from the corrupted governance of martial rule, but we were disappointed.
A reactive Constitution was hastily promulgated which laid the framework for the kind of “checks and balances” which the trapos we brought back to power and the new oligarchs saw as opportunity to lord it over us, the former greedy for more corrupt spoils, the latter feeding the trough while profiting from regulatory capture.
Leader after leader entrusted with great power failed us successively despite elections later marred by vote-buying, fraud and manipulation.
From EDSA One we gambled on EDSA Two, only to result in more of the same.
Disenchanted by nine years of graft where both legislature and military were bribed with pork and perks, we elected the scion of the sainted widow, who, while personally clean, was unable to clean the Augean stables of corruption in government.
So we opted for a mayor from Southern Philippines, the first in our history of one who did not come from the legislature (editor’s note: the man was congressman of the first district of Davao from 1998 t0 2001), who was known for his mailed fists against crime and drugs, but two years of a worldwide pandemic crippled his programs, while a few corrupt individuals took advantage.
Plus ca change, plus ca reste la meme chose.
So we brought back someone from the promised “golden years” when life was comparably better, a hark from the troubled past while forgetting its excesses, whose political marriage with the scion of the still popular retiring leader we thought would last forever.
But the marriage was irretrievably sundered by the chicanery of the president’s courtiers while he watched helplessly by.
Meanwhile, the corruption arising from the unbridled greed of legislators who by default ruled the country laid the economy listless, marked by inflation going haywire, investments seeking other climes, and the quality of life getting more and more un-endurable.
Yesterday, the multitudes came to show their rage over the dying of the light.
What will happen next, and what does the future bode for our saling-lahi?
